Scenes From One Dad’s Foxhole

There are some things that are omens, they portend bad things. In late 1991 Nirvana hit the charts with Smells Like Teen Spirit. It seemed like a pretty cool song from a band of stinky homeless guys. But it was just the bugle call signaling the end of hair metal. In the 1990 the FCC implemented the educational/informational mandate and unfortunately killed Scooby Doo, Thundarr the Barbarian and Spiderman & His Amazing friends along with the rest of Saturday morning cartoons. In week 6 of the 1980 NFL season the 1-4 Bengals came into Three Rivers Stadium to play the defending Super Bowl Champion Steelers. The Bengals lone win and the Steelers lone loss was the result the first meeting between the teams in week 3. The Bengals won again and it seemed like an unfortunate upset but it was really the beginning of the end for the 70’s Steelers Dynasty.

I show up at the gas station Wednesday morning as I normally do on my way to work. I head over to the fountain pop and grab the big 44 oz. styrofoam cup. If I have the option, I always pick styrofoam and 44 oz. 52 oz is too much and 32 is too little. One place has a 42 oz and I’ll go with that when I stop there. But it’s always styrofoam. It keeps the pop colder than plastic. Plus, and I’m just going by some extremely lazy research, styrofoam is not biodegradable or recyclable while plastic is recyclable. So I figure walking around with a big styrofoam cup makes the PC enviro crowd irritated. Good enough for me.

Aside from that small and extremely petty victory, I just like cold fountain pop in a big cup. Irritating the left is really just a unintentional bonus. Not that I’m dismissing lefty irritation but if we’re all being honest with ourselves, irritating the left isn’t especially difficult. They’re offended by almost everything. And if somehow you come to a non-offended conclusion, they will explain why you should be and twitter shame you into being offended. Regardless, I really like Diet Pepsi in the big cup. It’s the official soft drink of the NFL. Plus fountain pop tastes different the can pop. Not that I’m against can pop. If I’m ranking them, can pop is a solid second to fountain pop. Plastic bottle pop is last. I’m not drinking that if I can avoid it. It’s like Bud Light. I’m not avoiding it at all costs, but I’m grabbing can of something else first.

But on this particular Wednesday morning, as I fill up my big Styrofoam cup, the liquid coming out of the Diet Pepsi dispenser is alarmingly clear. Like it could be Sprite. Nobody wants Sprite in the morning. But I don’t have a lot of options. There’s only one Diet Pepsi dispenser. So here’s the situation…I can leave the gas station and drive to another gas station which really isn’t that close and is in the opposite direction of my office. I can get a crappy plastic bottled Diet Pepsi. Or I can bite the bullet and fill up with…Diet Coke. I know. It’s a lose-lose situation. Probably a lot like the Democrat’s presidential primary choice. Luckily for me I’ve faced this situation before and I went with the driving to another gas station option. But that was on a Saturday morning and I still have to get to work. So I filled up Diet Coke. I wasn’t happy about it. I got to work and yeah, I drink the whole thing. But as soon as I finished it, I went down and got a can of Diet Pepsi to wash the taste out of my mouth. And then I get my arse kicked for about 6 hours in meetings. Clear liquid outta the Diet Pepsi dispenser…bad omen…